


the language of flowers

by offkeyathem



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dragons, F/M, Genocide, illusions to genocide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:40:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29271885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/offkeyathem/pseuds/offkeyathem
Summary: flowers like to gossip(alternatively: sometimes you wish you didn't speak their language)
Relationships: Gaara (Naruto)/Original Female Character(s)





	the language of flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> who is the lamb and who is the knife

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> flower meaning:  
> fading hope and a feeling of having been forsaken

There are legends about them, everyone has heard about the Shibayama clan. Legends about how they can spit fire and take down a hundred men by themselves. How they can burn down an entire forest and turn the desert into glass. 

Kaida thinks these are bullshit.

There are legends about them how they waged war and bit off more than they could chew. How they angered the wrong god and were wiped out for it. How they bathed in fire and eventually let it consume them.

Kaida _knows_ these are bullshit.

* * *

In one of the snug valleys along the Land of Fire's northwest border, there exists a village named Asagao, the majority of its residents hailing from the Shibayama clan. In one of the houses, the leader of both the clan and the village has given birth. She names the baby _little dragon_ and watches with adoration as her husband takes Kaida into his arms and vows to protect her with his life (he does, of course, that is not a surprise. anyone who makes this vow dies as a result). 

The village celebrates the new life with a ceremony where the mother buries the placenta into the ground near where her mother buried hers. 

(far way in the Land of Wind, there is a boy born prematurely. he has red hair and a demon trapped inside him with a faulty seal. his name means self-loving demon. his village ignores the cries of the newborn. he never stood a chance.)

Kaida is three when fire shoots out of her palms and nearly burns down a stack of hay in front of her. Her mother comes running and laughs when her daughter looks a little too excited. She takes her hands and teaches her about her kekkei genkai: fire release. 

(the redheaded boy in the Land of Wind turns three and is met with other children running away from him.)

When Kaida is six, her mother goes through the physical conditioning, hands her a pair of dual swords, and begins to teach her how to use them.

(when gaara turns six, he kills his uncle and realizes that he will always be alone. he carves the kanji for love in his forehead and decides there is no one worth loving, not even him. he survives another assassination attempt. His siblings spit in his face and hide behind their fear. the demon inside him forces the thought _i will be alone until i die_ through his mind. between the screaming and the cries of terror, no one notices the anemone flowers outside his compound.)

* * *

Kiada turns eight when her mother hands her a map and tells her it's time to seek out her own summon dragon. 

Dragons have always been a huge part of the lives of the clan. There's a clan legend that says the founder of the Shibayamas sought out the first ever known dragon when no one else was brave enough and impressed the dragon so much that it agreed to give her the gift of fire release and to teach her how to use it. Ever since then, the clan has sought out dragons after they learn the basics of their kekkei genkai from their parents around the age of seven(this legend—according to the elders, anyways— is also why the kekkei genkai can only be passed on by the mother). 

Kaida's grown up with dragons, they're everywhere in the village. Mamoru, a turquoise color with dark blue spines, is her father's summon. So to say, she's excited to finally get her own summon is an understatement. 

Kaida gathers her things—her swords, clothes, food, everything a seven-year-old would need for a trip—and the whole village sees her off as they do with every kid who gets a chance at a summoning contract. She goes into the forest surrounding Asagao and follows the map. 

It takes her one week to reach the dragons' den where three dragons were lounging around in thronelike chairs—the Elder Dragons. Kaida remembers Mamoru telling her about them and what to do when you meet them. First, she approaches them and kneels, placing one hand over her heart and the other behind her back while bowing her head. Then she speaks, " _Fukuriu-sama, Suiriu-sama, Kinryu-sama,_ my name is Shibayama Kaida. I come to you to seek a summoning contract." 

_"Shilta wux renthisj wer ooble di wer darastrixi, fanol?_ " The golden dragon, Kinryu, hisses out. Kaida looks up and nods, " _Di ekmiv, si mi vi Shibayama_."

"W _ux tir vucot svabol sweekmonir vi darastrix lasau consists di, harkt?"_

Kaida nods again. 

_"Re wux kepla'nasa?"_

_"Axun."_

The grin that stretches across all three draconian faces makes the hair on the back of Kaida's neck stand up. 

_"Hak, yth nishka tlush."_

* * *

Kaida's back in the woods. At least, she thinks she is. It felt different like if she tried to find the path back to Asagao, she wouldn't be able to. Kinryu had given her three tasks to complete. The first task was as simple as one could expect from a dragon: _collect two bloodridden flowers and return in two sunsets._

Only one problem with that. 

Bloodridden flowers were thought to be nonexistent, or at the very least wiped out. 

Kaida sighs, _of course, I would get something like that. Where would you even find bloodridden flowers?_ She's eight, for gods' sake! She decides to look at the map her mother had given her, only to find that it had changed. Asagao wasn't even on the map. In fact, there were no villages on the map, it was just land. Kaida scrutinizes the map, _Were there any humans? If there are, then there should be settlements._ There were no settlements. _Fine,_ She huffs and rolls up the map before beginning to walk in one direction, _I'll figure it out on my own._

She walks well into the night of the first day before stopping and climbing up a tree to rest.

Kaida wakes up to birds chirping. Her first thought of the new day is _So that means there are animals, even if there weren't humans._ Her second thought is _What kind of predators are here?_ She's answered a moment later by a wolf howling and a snarl that had to have been from a large cat. Her hand automatically goes to one of her swords. Then, bloodred fills her vision. 

A white flower spotted with red hangs from one of the tree's branches. She reaches out towards it, _Is that what a bloodridden flower looks like?_ Her gut said yes so she grabs it and quickly puts it in the pouch of her pack where the map was. _Now,_ she thinks, looking around, _gotta find another one._

"Aha," Kaida says out loud, spotting another bloodridden flower on the tree opposite to her. It wasn't much of a jump but she would still have to. She prepares herself to jump and pushes off the branch she was on. The branch was in reach and _—_

 _—_ she's on the ground with claws digging into her shoulders and a tiger snarling over her. There's a scream lodged in her throat that she won't allow out in fear of setting the cat off even more. Her breathing quickens. She's panicking, not good. _Don't panic ,_ Kaida hears what sounds like her mother, _panicking gets you nowhere and does nothing good for you. Right, _she thinks, _I'll have to think logically._ She can't reach her swords but that's never stopped her in training before. 

Brilliant orange flames ignite on her palms and she moves them upwards towards the paws holding her down. 

The tiger yelps, pulling back and running away. _Ha, stupid cat,_ Kaida grins in triumph before climbing the tree she had been trying to get to and picking the other flower. She places the flower with the other one and climbs down, making her way back to the spot she had been dropped of at. 

_"Kinriu-sama, Si tepoha chiilipena wer cep!"_

* * *

The second task, Kaida remembers as she picks up a jagged piece of steel and lays it out, is to assemble broken pieces of a sword in front of the dragons. Their reptilian eyes follow her as she moves another piece of the sword and lays it next to the first one. She does this to all fifteen pieces, making sure they're organized before she tries to fit the pieces together. 

It takes her a few tries but eventually all of the pieces fit together in a mold, ready to have heated metal poured on it to glue it together. 

_"Zi bensvelk_ ," Kinriu says, " _Wux jahen zi temep. Asadsadavi coi clax creolna zahae vi kear vur vi sil shar wux managed ekess chiilipen nomeno cep persvek onureth jiil klewkini."_

 _"Axun,"_ Suiriu hisses out, _"Ihk vi vakil eorikc juanth, wux re zi othokent."_

Kaida felt pride bubble in her chest. 

_"Si tir ti siofme yth rigluin wer fogahral cep, myvish,"_ Fukuriu says. _"Thric, yth tir ti,"_ Kinriu tilts her head down to look Kaida in the eye and addresses her, _"Shibayama Kaida, geou wux shala udoka ekess calaun wux?_

Kaida nods once and before she can react, Kinriu opens her maw and swallows her whole.

* * *

Kaida opens her eyes to a mountain top and the three dragons floating above her. No words are spoken and she doesn't know whether or not to be terrified. Suiriu swoops down, pinning Kaida to the ground. Kaida doesn't react like she did with the tiger. This was Judgement. Every Shibayama who sought out a summon went through this. As Suiriu raises his claws, Kaida closes her eyes, lets out a breath, and doesn't let fear get to her. She opens her eyes to meet the reptile's above her just as the claw struck.

Her chest is torn open and her fate appears. 

* * *

Fate burns red and hot or cold and grey. For Kaida, it seems to be both. Fate's eyes are twin spotlights of diaster and fortune and fate can't seem to decide on which eye the Shibayama heir deserves. Fate looks at the little dragon and says, _yes, this one will be a warrior._

* * *

Kaida awakes with a gasp. All three dragons are smiling horrible smiles. 

"We know exactly who to give you to," Kinriu says and it sounds like a death sentence.

* * *

She's heard of the dragon, Ryujin, before. Only the heroes of heroes have ever had him as a summon. His grin is full of mischief when he hears her name. " _Little dragon,_ " he calls her as she cuts her fingers and places the bloodsoaked prints on the summoning contract. She looks at the previous names before hers, all of them were dead, gone out in a blaze of glory.

"That won't happen to me," Kaida says, glaring spitefully at the names, "I'm not gonna die like they did."

"Oh?" Ryujin sits back on his haunches. "Yeah," Kaida says and she considers he found it amusing, a eight year old declaring she wasn't going to die after signing a contract with death himself. "Don't you know?" Ryujin asks, "Everyone who signs that contract dies early."

"Yeah, but I'm not." Kaida turns her glare to the beast. Ryujin just smiles like he hadn't heard it all before, saying almost mockingly, "Oh, I believe you, _Little dragon."_

* * *

Kaida returns home a week later with a dragon by her side. Her mother greets her with tears in her eyes and Kaida doesn't know if they were from grief or happiness. Everyone knows what the hero's dragon looked like, everyone knows what happens to heroes.

* * *

When she wakes up two days after her ninth birthday, there's a strange, indescribable feeling in the air. Bursts of energy tear through the air from the outside of the village. Kaida could feel it, there were different types of chakra that she recognized but the one most prevalent was Earth. 

Then the screams come.

* * *

Kaida turns nine and a week later, she finds herself alone in a strange village with the villagers looking at her like she's a monster.

Kaida turns nine and finds herself covered in her clansmembers' blood. 

Kaida turns nine and watches as her clan is nearly eradicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> translations:  
> Shilta wux renthisj wer ooble di wer darastrixi, fanol?- do you know the tongue of the dragons, girl?  
> Di ekmiv, si mi vi Shibayama.-of course, i am a Shibayama  
> Wux tir vucot svabol sweekmonir vi darastrix lasau consists di, harkt?-you do know what seeking a dragon summon consists of, right?  
> Re wux kepla'nasa?-are you prepared?  
> Axun-yes.  
> Hak, yth nishka tlush.-then, we shall begin  
> Si tepoha chiilipena wer cep- I have completed the task  
> zi bensvelk-very good  
> wux jahen zi temep. asadsadavi coi clax creolna zahae vi kear vur vi sil shar wux managed ekess chiilipen nomeno cep persvek onureth jiil klewkini-You were very fast. Usually it take someone around a day and a half but you managed to complete this task in under two hours  
> ihk vi vakil eorikc juanth, wux re zi othokent.-For a seven year old, you're very smart  
> si tir ti siofme yth rigluin wer fogahral cep, myvish-I do not think we need the third task, sister  
> thric, yth tir ti-no, we do not  
> eou wux shala udoka ekess calaun wux?- will you allow us to judge you?  
> \--------  
> hope you enjoy!!! kudos and comments are greatly appreciated


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